Pleascach turned out quickly at Leopardstown last night and made it pay with an impressive success in the Irish Stallion Farms European Breeders Fund Maiden for Jim Bolger and Kevin Manning.

Our Vinnie displayed his customary stamina and toughness to land the Grade 3 Liberty Insurance Novice Hurdle narrowly in Limerick yesterday.

On a day which promised so much, Patrick Mullins salvaged a single win from his four rides in Gowran Park yesterday as he closes in on Billy Parkinson’s record, set in 1915, for the number of winners ridden by an amateur in a calendar year.

Gardaí in Kildare are appealing for witnesses to an armed robbery in Naas this morning.

A Kildare man who kidnapped and raped a Waterford woman in her bedroom while gardaí stood outside the door has been given a ten-year sentence by Mr Justice Kevin O'Higgins at the Central Criminal Court.